Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There are definitely more people going to work now than in the original lockdown of March and April but there are many different reasons for that. First, there is a wider definition of "essential work" and we now include construction, manufacturing, international trade and services and supply chains. Hundreds of thousands more people are deemed essential, including those in childcare and education, which were always essential in our minds but were not deemed essential in March and April. That is the main reason that more people are going to work now and the traffic counts are higher than in the spring.

A number of people want to get back into the office. The Deputy knows them and I know them. I have heard from employers, even in the public service, about people being allowed back to the office for mental health reasons because they were suffering at home for reasons relating to their mental health, relationships or being in overcrowded housing accommodation. There may be many different reasons that people are back at work and I do not think the main reason relates to employers pressurising people to come to work when they could work from home. That is not to say that does not happen, but I do not have a sense that there are a large number of cases. I would like to know the figure but I do not have a sense that a large number of cases are awaiting a hearing. I will check to see how many complaints have been made to the WRC on that.

From a public health point of view, it is worth saying, and can be seen from the figures, that the vast majority of people who get Covid do so in their own or someone else's home. One is actually statistically safer in school or a workplace than in one's own home or someone else's home, and we should not forget that. It is often people who pick up Covid in the home who bring into the workplace or the school, not the other way round. That is just a fact of where we stand.

On the Deputy's general point, which Deputy Paul Murphy also made, of whether we need more staff and resources for the WRC and the HSA in order that they can carry out more inspections, the answer is "Yes". In the two years that I hope to hold this job, part of my mission will be to better resource those agencies to ensure that the laws we pass will be upheld in the workplace.